Until I saw this video I had no idea who Richard Hawthorne was. Now I’m happy to know. Pound-for-pound he’s obviously one of the strongest men out there, deadlifting nearly 5x his bodyweight. 😯
Just awesome.
Here’s the video:
And yes, while it’s got “iPhone portrait” going on, I think that’s fine given the vertical nature of the subject matter.
What struck me the most from this? The lock out. That it’s not a hinge, it’s a thrust. That’s interesting. I stood up and tried it. Lacking a bar and weights I can’t get a full feel of it, but there’s certainly a big mechanical difference. I think I shall experiment with it.
Week 2, Day 4 (basic routine) and Day 5 (malfunction clearances)
20 reps of wall drill from extension 2H
5 reps of wall drill from extension SHO
5 reps of wall drill from extension WHO
20 reps of wall drill from press-out 2H
5 reps of wall drill from press-out SHO
5 reps of wall drill from press-out WHO
10 reps of TRB, 3/4 speed, 2H
5 reps of LRW 3/4 speed 2H
10 reps of wall drill from press out, 2H
I just realized that I didn’t dry fire yesterday. Oops. That’s what I get for being in a hurry to get to work. I also didn’t get it done this morning… work’s been engulfing this week. So, let’s just combine the two sessions and get things done.
For some reason today I was all about speed and explosive power. When I was doing my deadlifts, and especially when I was doing my Presses, I was just going fast… just exploding and moving the weight with as much speed as I could. Not sure why I did that, but I did. I think with Press it hit because the music blaring on the stereo was awesome. 🙂 But I cranked it hard and really dug it. I’m fine-tuning my Press technique, especially that whole issue with how I get a little dizzy when unracking and setting up for the first press.
On the pulldown abs… while I like the exercise, I don’t like the side-effects. The rope handles kill my hands and neck. Gym owner and I were talking and he had me try another variation… the type where you kneel on the floor, and using a single handle (like you would for cable crossovers) grabbing it like it’s a horn coming out of your unicorn forehead. I did it for one set, but the weight was too light, but I’m going to give it a try. It seems it’ll have its own suck, but hey… no harm in trying it and seeing.
And you can see my assistance reps dropped. Not sure why. My guesses are either 1. how I tore up the palm heel of my right hand some days ago, and the bruising and scabbing over really hurt when I put pressure on it, 2. from all the explosive main lifts, I was just pooped. No matter. I still worked hard, regardless of the actual numbers.
OH, and on deadlift. While it seems to make some more sense to pronate my left and supinate my right, that just is NOT working for me. I’m getting some sort of deposit on the inside palm “knuckle” of my right middle finger, and this just puts pressure on it. Plus I notice much more desire to “curl” the bar in this position. When I got to rep 5 on the last set I switched my grip and it felt a lot better… I lost my groove, but I think supinating my left and pronating my right is the better way. It was good to experiment, now I know for certain.
While the session calls for different speeds, I did all my reloads fairly slow or even slower. I wanted to ensure the entire orchestration of movements was correct and solid.
I also did some Burkett Reloads and played around with where my eyes look. Do they look at the top edge of the magwell? the bottom edge? or somewhere “in” the magwell? Results inconclusive, but you do need to focus somewhere, not just have nebulous eyesight in the area. I think having a point “in” the magwell works best because that’s where you want things to go… aiming with your eyes, and if you aim to an edge, you’ll hit the edge. I’ll want to play with this more. To this point I’ve just “looked”, but I’m playing with a refinement of the look.
I’m trying to make the strings that don’t specify speed be at “full speed”. Granted, they aren’t as good as they could be, but I am seeing the sights and able to call my shots, which is still of use. But it just means on the 3/4 speed and slow speed to make them all perfect. From that will come the correctness.
I’m not dragging the sled today. As mentioned in yesterday’s workout post, an old ankle injury is flaring up. I don’t need to inflict more damage on it. 😦
This morning as I got into the shower after my workout, I looked in the mirror and realized my ass has gotten bigger.
All hail the mighty squat. 🙂
And I thought about how much I actually hate to squat. It’s always been the movement I liked the least. And I reckon it still is, relatively speaking. But I did realize that I don’t hate it as much as I used to. How to get good at what you hate? Keep doing it until you don’t hate it any more. You probably hate it because you suck at it, so keep doing it because that’s the only way you’ll stop sucking at it. It’s like shooting weak-hand-only… I still suck at it, but I don’t hate it so much because I practice it more and have gotten a lot better at it. And same with squats.
But then I started to think what my favorite lift is. I still think it’s deadlift, because there’s just something so basic about picking up heavy things. It’s probably also because it’s the lift I can move the most absolute weight with, but I really think it’s the visceral primitiveness of it all that appeals to me somewhere deep down inside.
So on that note, I was surprised to find that what came in a very close second was the Press.
Yes, Bench Press is relegated to 3rd place.
While The Almighty Bench is such a hallmark of weightroom manliness, I like the Press even more, probably because no one does it. And probably because it’s also got this visceral primitiveness… because once you pick something up, what’s a logical thing to do with it? Lift it over your head! (or maybe throw it). It’s hard to do. It’s a little scary. It’s intimidating. And you just can’t move a big number… it takes a while to work up to being able to put 45’s on and press it up for reps. It’s even more work to get to pressing your bodyweight. And so, it’s not as ego gratifying, and people are going to stay away from it because it’s hard.
But if the real reason you don’t want to press is the fact that you don’t want to confront a hole – likely a gaping-ass hole – in your strength, then the bar is right: you’re a pussy.
Lifting is hard. Lifting heavy weights is harder. Swallowing your ego and making yourself better is hardest.
Asst. #1 – Lat pulldowns (pronated grip, hands just wider than shoulder-width apart)
3 x 10 x 130
Asst. #2 – Back Raises (hands behind head)
3 x 15 x BW
Asst. #3 – DB Bench Press
3 x 10 x 120
Asst. #4 – Face Pulls
3 x 12 x 80/70/70
My body was feeling beat up, so I took last week off. I’m glad I did. I figured since I had already completed 1 week of cycle 12, I’d just start over, still call it cycle 12, and do week 1 again. I figure as long as I can meet what I did, I’m happy.
I actually could have done more this week. My squats felt good. Yes I was falling forward a bit on the last set, but I was moving fast and using a lot of power. I really felt good, went deep, etc.. I made no conscious decision nor thought before the workout, but as soon as I started getting under the bar I found myself working to make my entire upper body tight: grip the hell out of the bar, flare my lats, tighten the torso, everything upstairs got tight as hell. I didn’t manage to keep it 100%, but I tried my best and boy it made a difference. I also thought about things like raising my butt first (not my knees), pressing with the arms, press my head back into the bar… all these things just happened, maybe not together, maybe not in the best of ways, but I didn’t think about lifting all last week (other than the sled drags) and I think the time away let some things sink into my head. Good stuff.
Bench… heck, that just flew. I could have done more, but opted to stay fresh. Again another case of really working on form, staying tight, squeeze the hell out of the bar with my hands — that really helps cue the whole body to be tight.
Assistance work was whatever it was. no fuss, no muss.
Felt good. Well, mostly good. Years ago I blew out my left ankle doing some martial arts stuff. This past weekend it started to flare up on me and it still kinda hurts. I opted to drive to the gym instead of walk today, just to avoid any extra wear and tear — save it for squats. Glad I did. Move Aleve for me today….
Stuff From Hsoi 